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| Days in Music
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Sixth Floor Trio
Posted by: Admin on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 03:34 PM
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Visit the website of the Sixth Floor Trio at www.sixthfloortrio.com. Here is some info from the Trio's website:
The Sixth Floor Trio (Teddy Abrams, Harrison Hollingsworth, Johnny Teyssier) is a chamber group of former students at the Curtis Institute of Music, and is dedicated to the creation and performance of art that furthers a dialogue between different musical communities and other artistic disciplines. We see all music from around the world as part of the same continuum, and we look for new ways to make connections between varied musical styles. In addition, we wish to share our artistic passion and music-making with diverse audiences, from traditional concertgoers to towns that seldom have access to much of the music that we love.
We believe that music makes a very important difference in our communities, and we want to share the joy and passion that we find at the heart of music from around the world. From Bluegrass to Klezmer, Classical to Popular, Jazz to Ancient Music – we want to explore it and bring its energy to the world.
The Sixth Floor Trio has opened for (and collaborated with) Marvin Hamlisch, will perform at the Kennedy Center in 2010 and the Kravis Center (Palm Beach) in 2011, and the group has performed concerts and community engagement for Astral Artists in Philadelphia.
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Goldberg Variations
Posted by: The IMA on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 07:42 PM
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We just discovered a great site about Bach's Goldberg Variations. It includes commentary and analysis about the piece from many well-known interpreters of Bach's music and interesting information about the piece, its history, and its performance styles. This work is one of the greatest keyboard pieces, consisting of a slow, highly ornamented theme (called the Aria) and followed by thirty variations. Every third variation is a canon, and each canon's voices are offset at increasing intervals (for example the first canon is at a unison, the second cannon is at the interval of a second, and so forth). The variations all are highly unique in character, and many of them are incredibly virtuosic. If you want to find out more about this marvelous work, click here: http://www.thegoldbergvariations.com.
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Free piano recital by 17 year old in Reno, Nevada
Posted by: Jiyang on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 10:21 PM
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My name is Jiyang Chen and I am 17 years old. I will be having a solo piano recital on Sunday, April 25, 2004 at 8:00 p.m at Nightingale Hall in the Church Fine Arts Building at UNR in Reno, NV. Admission is free. Pieces I will play in the recital on April 25th include: 1. Ravel's Gaspard de Nuit, ondine 2. Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 in E Minor, 3rd movement; 3. Listz Transcendental Etude #5, Feux Follets 4. Chopin Scherzo in B flat minor 5. Chopin Scherzo in C sharp minor 6. Chopin Etude Op.25 no.11, "Winter Wind" 7. Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 111, 2nd Movement
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Somber Euphoria
Posted by: Jiyang on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 10:03 PM
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Somber Euphoria
By Jiyang Chen
At what point do you draw the line where the mechanical order of everyday existence ends when creativity and artistry originate? The endeavors of mankind stretch wide and far, and none are as spectacular and mysterious as the art of music making, and the successful interpretations and definitions that have accompanied this poetic medium extend to the soul and essence of our emotions and passions. Music can impart in us a feeling of melancholy and sorrow, rapture and euphoria. Many have studied the classical instruments through lessons and tutoring, but few have the perseverance and willpower to continue seriously in the analytical and technical studies of music and instrument to appoint this as their vocation of preference. Thus begins my story of my experiences of hardship, boredom, and accomplishments with the piano.I started the piano at a little under age four in China. I played on a Pearl River upright that my grand parents bought for me that sounded like a disembodied, soulless living thing that had contradictory voices challenging every note I played. Practicing exercised my frustration - attempting to get all the notes correctly with a strict parent next to me for two hours a day was paralleled torture. Playing over and over again to get the correct notes and proper hand movements led to an experience of hair pulling, wrist cutting, self stabbing, eye gouging frustration These frustrations were attackers that assailed my mind like torpedoes attacking a ship in an array of constant bombardments of anger and wrath. Parents in China labored their kids to study classical instruments in hopes of achieving a hardworking and diligent child. My parents never hoped for me to study piano seriously as an adult, for they only wished to bring up a child with worthy study habits and perseverance. For years I labored through endless Czerny exercises and scales, which I later learned to appreciate, since these compositions of perpetual motion had developed basic technique needed for later and more advanced pieces requiring more than just "chops". With the exception of an occasional piece of Bach, I played mostly exercises and etudes that stressed redundancy and strict finger movements. These four years contained misery and boredom, which at times reached such a severe level of hatred for the piano. I resembled not the children with the natural love of the instrument who could practice eight hours a day without complaint. My parents did not permit me the freedom to halt my playing when I became bored and strained me to play at least two hours every day. How I desired to cease the practice of the piano and go play outside with the other kids! I became so wearied of the pieces I was playing that often I would kick the piano and smash and tear off the keys and cry like a little girl to vent my torment and anguish. Those black and white keys were my adversaries: how I desired to shatter those pieces of plastic and wood into tiny fragments so they were irreparable, and I would never have to play that cursed thing again in my life! Even from an early age, the feeling of nervousness has accompanied every important piano competition or performance. Chopin once wrote, "I am not fitted to give concerts. The public frightens me, I feel suffocated by its panting breath, paralyzed by its curious glance, mute before those unknown faces." I dread public performances, and I am always under heavy stress days before a major concert or recital. I constantly dread that I commit a significant error in the middle of a playing and embarrass myself in front of all the people. I moved to the United States at the age of eight, an event eight years ago that I still remember as clear as day. Pieces that I played no longer lingered in the territory of technical exercises, and I had roamed into the area of real music. Here is where the real differences between making music and simply playing notes occurred. Many people don't realize that there lies a lot more to simply playing the notes. Many can play the notes, but few can play it from the depths of their souls. This is accomplished by conveying emotions through music, escaping the usual dull playing that many people execute containing neither dynamics nor any melodic flow and without any thought put into the music. Claudio Arrau, an extraordinary classical pianist who practiced up to thirteen hours a day as a child, once said, "Interpretation is a synthesis of the world of the composer and the world of the interpreter." One of the unique aspects of making music is the ability to relate one's personal experiences to the music, and once you see a bridge connecting the spirit to the writings of the composer, you have accomplished what many cannot. Pianist Lhevinne commented on the wide majority of young pianist playing without any passion when he wrote, "Thousands of pianoforte recitals are given in the great music centres of the world by aspiring students every year. They play their Liszt Rhapsodies, often with most commendable accuracy, but with very little of the one great quality which the world wants and for which it holds its highest rewards - Beauty".I began to enjoy playing the piano after moving to the United States when I could play music that I liked, because I had developed enough of the technique needed to play advanced music well without enduring the hardships that I had overcome to develop basic technique. It's a poetic medium of expression to represent poetry, imagery emotion, sentiment and fancy, and I have come to realize the fine line between technical, mechanical playing and beautiful music making. People ask me how I could sit down and play for so long without being discouraged by the dullness of practice. I can only say that it is the love of the music and the being able to relate my personal experiences of hardship, happiness, and sadness into the music and to convey this message to audience.
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Happy Birthday to J.S. Bach!
Posted by: The IMA on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 12:57 AM
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Happy Birthday to Johann Sebastian Bach, one of Classical Music's greatest composers ever. Bach's genius has greatly influenced the history of Western music, and his brilliant and beautiful compositions are loved by people around the world. Many of the building blocks of Classical Music come directly from Bach, such as the Well-Tempered Clavier (as one of the greatest books of studies for keyboard players), the unaccompanied Violin and Cello works (as marvelous examples of solo instrumental writing), and the Chorales (as the staple of the study of Harmony). Bach's extraordinary intelligence is found throughout his works, and especially in pieces such as the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue, where he shows his mastery of counterpoint and musical imitation. At the same time, Bach's music is always very beautiful and full of both life and emotion.
To celebrate Bach's Birthday, we have several special links to information about Bach:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/wtc.html - Contains scores to the complete Well-Tempered Clavier as well as movies about many of the fugues!
http://www.jsbach.org/ - Contains information about every piece written by Bach, along with recommended recordings for each work.
http://www.kunstderfuge.com/bach.htm - Contains a large biography of Bach along with hundreds of Bach MIDI files
Enjoy, and be sure to email us at imaweb@imusicassociation.com if you have any Bach questions, comments, or articles to submit!
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New Saint Louis Symphony Music Director
Posted by: The IMA on Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 09:47 AM
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David Robertson has been appointed music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, taking over for Hans Vonk. Robertson was born in Santa Monica, CA and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has led many of the world's primary orchestras as a guest conductor and has been Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France since 2000.
Click Here to read the full story.
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Happy Birthday to Jean Sibelius
Posted by: mjr652 on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 05:22 PM
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On this day in 1865, Finland's wonderful composer Jean Sibelius was born in Tavastehus, Finland. Sibelius was one of the great composers of the late-romantic period whose earlier works can be compared to those of Tchaikovsky, but whose later works have a very unique voice. Most of his music is known for being dark, cold, and very nationalistic.
If you are interested in listening to any of Sibelius' works, we recommend the Violin Concerto, Symphonies 1, 2, and 5, En Saga, Valse Triste and Finlandia. Email us at imaweb@imusicassociation.com if you have any questions or comments.
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Happy Birthday to Aaron Copland
Posted by: The IMA on Friday, November 14, 2003 - 01:48 PM
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On this day in 1900, Aaron Copland, one of the great American composers of the 20th century, was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Here is a link to the United States Library of Congress' wonderful Copland Collection:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/achtml/achome.html
If you want to listen to any of Copland's work, we recommend the Piano Concerto, Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, the Clarinet Concerto, Inscape, and Connotations. Visit our Copland Portal page by clicking here. Email us at imaweb@imusicassociation.com if you have any question or comments.
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Detroit's New Symphony Hall
Posted by: The IMA on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 01:02 AM
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The Detroit Symphony has completed the Max M. Fisher Music Center, which includes a much-needed renovation to the Detroit Orchestra Hall, a new 450-seat performance hall called "The Music Box," and an education center. For short, the center is called "The Max," in honor of philanthropist Max Fisher, who donated a large portion of the $60 million required to complete the center. The center will not only greatly increase the performance conditions of the Detroit Symphony, but will also improve the quality of the surrounding neighborhood. Click Here to read more.
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